August 27, 2020

#31: Widening the search for alien life on habitable planets; why unconscious bias training might not work; the microbiome of cancer tumours

24 minutes

The universe is so large, so expansive, it’s hard to believe that life doesn’t exist elsewhere. Over the years we’ve found a handful of planets that look like they could host life, but now the net’s being cast wider than ever before.

In the pod this week are New Scientist journalists Valerie Jamieson, Clare Wilson and Tim Revell. They explain how our definition of a ‘habitable planet’ might be too narrow - that a planet might not need to sit in the Goldilocks zone to sustain life - opening up the possibility for life on many weird and wonderful worlds we’ve never even considered before.

The team also discusses the impact of unconscious bias training - why it might not work and how it could in fact make biases worse. They explain how cancer tumours have their own microbiome, and what that means for diagnoses. They also touch on an amazing new finding about Clarias batrachus, a catfish that walks on land, and ponder over whether our sun once had a twin.

To find out more, subscribe at newscientist.com/podcasts.

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